Leveling Up

Although I tend to focus on life in Korea when writing, I guess I have an occasional obligation to mention the reason I am here: my job. At my school, the year is divided into 4 13-week terms. During week 10 of each term, the students take an Achievement Test to determine if they will "level up." The English program is divided into 10 levels, and the Achievement Test decides if the students are ready to move on to the next level. Interestingly, the student's score on the test is pretty much the sole factor in making this decision, with the weekly review test scores, homework completion rates, and general in-class behavior having little to no impact. While these things do technically matter since no student will level up without putting in some effort, I feel that this is a somewhat abstract concept to explain and therefore general teacher policy is to pretend that these factors account for a significant portion of the leveling decision.

The achievement test consists of 4 components: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. As the teacher, I grade my own class's writing and speaking sections, which is a somewhat stressful process since the grading must be completed before the 3-hour class period is up. For the writing section, you only get about 15 minutes in some classes to grade up to 14 writing samples. Talk about a time constraint.

The stress on the teachers is nothing compared to the stress on the students, many of whom are under a great deal of pressure from their parents to level up. The test results come out at the end of week 12, which is where we are in the term right now. Students who don't level up have to repeat the level again, and those who have leveled up feel as though they've put enough effort into their current level, and therefore the general degree of motivation during the last week and a half of term is low to nonexistent. Furthermore, some students who don't level up choose to leave the academy and study elsewhere, presumably at a place where it is easier to move between levels.

Clothes Shopping in Seoul

Seoul, as a major city and the capital of South Korea, is definitely a shopping mecca. The city is full of neighborhoods catering to every need a shopper could have. For fashionable young adults, the main shopping hub of the city is Myeongdong, an area of the city about 3 blocks by 3 blocks in size that is more or less off limits to traffic and is filled to the brim with shops and restaurants. The shops range from the expensive and high-class to the tiny and cheap (home of $10 shoes). Housed within this area is the city's only Forever 21, a sight for sore eyes for this recent college graduate who is used to skimping on quality in favor of saving money. Myeongdong also contains a large underground shopping complex as well as a mall and a Shinsegae department store.

Walking around the city, an observant American might notice that most Koreans (women in particular) are rather small, and that the obese portion of the population that is becoming predominant in America is more or less nonexistent in Korea. This suspicion is quickly confirmed on a shopping trip. Women's shoe sizes in most stores max out at size 50 (or 250 mm), approximately an 8 or 8.5 in American sizing. Even less forgiving is the range of pant sizes offered; most stores have only up to size 28 or maybe 29, the equivalent of up to around a size 6 in America. Keep in mind that the average American woman has a pant size of 12. Quite the cultural disparity. So what is a larger-bodied foreigner to do? Pretty much the only option for larger sizes is to go to Itaewon, the center for foreigners. Here you will find many stores specializing in larger sized clothing that cater to Americans in need.

Another important difference between shopping in Korea and America is in the department stores. While American department stores are generally places to find good bargains on clothing and household items, Korean department stores are places for expensive, quality items. Generally the floors are arranged in order of descending price from bottom to top, such that the entrance floor contains the most expensive items. For example, this floor usually contains stores such as Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Chanel, and Dior. The second floor will be equally pricey with boutique stores like Coach and Burberry. Eventually, the floors begin to stock clothing items, although they still tend to be rather expensive, with the cheapest brands being Tommy Hilfiger, DKNY, or similar. Not exactly the American experience.

Shopping can be frustrating at times, but being fashionable is highly valued in Seoul, so it's important to keep up with the trends. Therefore, the malls and neighborhoods like Myeongdong are packed every weekend, regardless of the weather. As if anyone needs an excuse to go shopping.

Pepero Day

Today, November 11th, is a holiday of sorts here in Korea, although it's hard to call something a holiday when it's corporate-sponsored. Today is Pepero Day, a truly unique day on which children exchange Pepero candies. "Pepero" is not a generic name for a type of food: it is a specific brand of snack produced by the Lotte company. And although Lotte claims the idea for the holiday wasn't theirs, there is hardly anyone who believes them. Not to mention that if it wasn't their idea, they should really make some changes to their marketing division.

Let me explain: November the 11th, or 11/11, is Pepero Day, because Pepero sticks look like 1's and 11/11 has four ones in it. The exchange of candies is somewhat along the lines of American Valentine's Day in that the people trading the candy are usually children or teenagers, and they give them to friends or romantic interests. In fact, the Lotte company makes over half their Pepero sales just in the month of November. Even though Lotte claims they did not create the holiday, they have certainly stepped up to provide for it, creating a variety of Pepero baskets and goody bags specifically for the 11th. The holiday is mostly contained to the youth population, although it never hurts as a teacher to pass out some extra goodies to the kids.

Happy Pepero Day!

Kpop Artist of the Week: Big Bang

If Korean pop music were a meal, Big Bang would be the rice. You can't have a complete understanding of Kpop without them. Big Bang resembles a typical United States boy band: there are 5 members, they sing and dance, they are wildly popular with teenage girls, and the selection of members was documented on a TV show. Unlike the boy bands of the US, however, most of the members of Big Bang had careers in the music industry before combining into one group. This boy band also aims to maintain more of a hip-hop image than a pop one. Furthermore, the group endorses Hite, a Korean beer. Not very wholesome if you ask me.



Big Bang is probably the first Kpop group a foreigner will become familiar with. And the foreigner audience is exactly who they are aiming to attract. Most of their songs contain a combination of English and Korean lyrics. The group is currently trying to break into the Japanese market, recording songs in the Japanese language. This move does not go over well with their Korean fan base, because as my students say about Japanese pop, "You can't understand what they're saying."

Check out Big Bang's breakout single, "Lies."

Physical Fitness: Hiking

Physical fitness is something that is taken very seriously in Seoul. This becomes very obvious when one chooses to travel one of the many hiking trails in the city. These trails are always very carefully groomed to be optimally accessible to the public. There are often stairs built into steep inclines and sometimes there are even paved paths to show the way. This being said, these trails are not for the faint of heart. When my friends and I embarked on a trail rated "easy to moderate," I imagined a flat, gently rolling path. What we encountered was a straight half hour of uphill climbing followed by two more hours of ups and downs (see picture). Needless to say, we were a bit unprepared for the experience.

The hiking paths here are always bustling with people, even on weekdays. The crowd tends to be somewhat older than what you would expect, with many hikers who are definitely in retirement. On the other hand, there are always plenty of small children who somehow manage to make it through these physically demanding hikes. Along the trails, there are always parties who have left the path to have picnic lunches, usually involving at least some beer or soju. Fashion is, as always, a crucial component of hiking. For both men and women, brightly colored hiking gear is expected to be worn, and it is always helpful to bring along a hiking stick.

If the hike alone isn't enough, you can always pull over at one of the many mountain-side exercise equipment stations. These consist of gym equipment which is installed right amongst the trees and which is free for anyone to use, assuming you can make it there.

Taking Out the Trash

It's one of the most common chores you could think of: taking out the trash. Theoretically, it should be quite an easy task. It certainly is in America, but here in Seoul the "green" obsession has made taking out the trash a rather convoluted process. At the most basic level there are two types of waste: recyclables and non-recyclables. Trash separation in America generally reaches its limit at this point, with the potential for a third category when allowing for multiple types of recyclables (ie paper and plastics).

Here in Seoul, there are seven different categories of waste product. When recycling, one must separate into five categories: glass, plastic, paper, can, and vinyl. Since having five separate containers in one apartment would be somewhat overwhelming, my strategy is to gather all the recyclables in one bag, and then separate them later. My apartment building provides a bin for each type of recyclable down at street level.

For non-recyclable products, there are two categories: food waste and everything else. Food waste is technically supposed to be collected separately from other trash and then placed into a special trash can for food bits. The interior of this lovely container is pretty much coated with rotting bits of food and is home to a flourishing colony of fruit flies. After two experiences with opening this can, I decided to never again separate my food waste from other waste (it's just not worth the loss of appetite). As far as "regular" trash, it must be collected in special white trash bags that can be purchased from convenience stores for about 25 cents a bag, depending on the size. Since there is no fee for trash pickup, this system of purchasing trash bags ensures that each person pays relative to the exact amount of trash they produce. When your trash bags are full, you simply place them on the sidewalk in front of your building at night. Around 3 am, trash collectors come around and grab the bags off the sidewalk. The only night they don't collect trash is on Saturdays, although many people seem to not realize this, resulting in a lot of trash bags lining the streets on Sundays.

So there you have it: a generally mindless household task turned complicated. At least it's helping save the planet, right?

(On a related note, there are hardly any trash cans in the city. You just leave your loose trash items wherever you want, and someone gets paid to pick up all the trash at night. It's sort of a double standard, don't you think? Not to mention one of the hardest things to get used to as a foreigner who has been indoctrinated with an anti-littering mindset.)

Insadong

This weekend, I went to an area of Seoul called Insadong with my coworker Lauren. First, we visited a Buddhist shrine, Jogyesa. Because it was a Sunday, the shrine was packed. One of the weirdest things about siteseeing in Seoul is that many historic areas are encapsulated in a small, quiet pocket of the city with trees, but if you look around you can see skyscrapers just outside the protected area. The shrine was one such area. The center area was a large building with three enormous golden Buddhas inside, each of which represents something different. To enter the main building you must remove your shoes, and monks are constantly chanting inside. The compound had an Information Center for Foreigners, where a helpful English-speaking old man gave us a little more information about the compound. Unfortunately, they were completely out of information packets written in English. Oh well. I took one in Korean, and maybe someday I'll be able to read it.

After visiting the shrine, we went for a walk through Insadong, which is one of many shopping districts in the city. It was pretty much a long roadway with shops on both side, and it was packed to the brim with people. Around the midpoint of the road there is a complex which is four stories high and is basically an upward winding path with shops all along and a performance area in the center, on the ground level. The stage featured a few very strange plays as well as a group of extremely out of sync bellydancers while we were making our way through the complex.

At the very top level, we found a special treat: apparently it was the day of the Women's Festival. As we had been seeing fliers for this event, we were anxious to see what it consisted of. It seemed like rather a big deal. However, it turned out to be located on about a 20' x 20' patch of roof, with a few tables lining the sides of the area. There was no discernible goal of the event, nor did there seem to be many activities. However, we did get a chance to draw pictures on a wooden board of things that stressed us out and then have a man hold the board so we could punch it in half. So all in all, a worthwhile venture.